On Monday, Congressman Paul Gosar joined fellow members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in sending a letter to President Obama, calling for the removal of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen for his dereliction of duty and breach of public trust:
There is an ongoing investigation into the targeting of innocent Americans by the IRS for their political beliefs. The letter followed the release of more than 1,000 new pages of information by the United States Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that the IRS previously failed to disclose despite multiple requests. The letter explains and provides evidence of the violations on the part of the IRS and Commissioner Koskinen in properly complying with both a congressional subpoena and its own internal preservation order.
Last year, Congressman Gosar led a legislative effort to prevent the IRS from giving bonuses to the employees of its Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division. This particular division of the IRS is the one that was involved in the targeting of conservative groups. Ultimately, the House passed his amendment prohibiting bonuses for senior executive service employees on July 16, 2014.
Last year the House also passed one of Congressman Gosar’s amendments which cut funds for the IRS by $353 million as part of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act of fiscal year 2015.
Congressman Gosar voted on April 10, 2014 to hold Lois Lerner, the former head of this IRS division, in contempt of Congress for her refusal to testify in regard to the targeting of conservative groups.
“Rather than cleaning house and restoring the trust of the American people, Commissioner Koskinen has continued the pattern of criminal behavior and lawlessness within the IRS. He has failed to comply with a congressional subpoena, failed to truthfully testify in front of Congress and is now chief commander for the cover-up of the targeting of innocent Americans by this rogue agency,” stated Gosar.
“We must pursue any and all constitutional options on the table to remove Koskinen, whether that be contempt or even impeachment. That vital trust between the American people and the IRS has not only been questioned, it has been annihilated. Koskinen made a bad situation worse and if the president won’t remove him for his criminal acts, then it falls on Congress to fire this bureaucrat who has no regard for the rule of law,” concluded Gosar.
Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Jason Chaffetz, in a statement released on Monday said, “Mr. Koskinen should no longer be the IRS Commissioner. We have asked the President to remove Mr. Koskinen from office.”
“Mr. Koskinen failed in his duty to preserve and produce documentation to this Committee. The IRS failed to comply with a congressional subpoena. The IRS further failed by making false statements to Congress. We will pursue all constitutional remedies at our disposal, including potential contempt proceedings or perhaps impeachment of Commissioner Koskinen,” alleged Chaffetz.
According to Chaffetz, “Under Mr. Koskinen’s leadership, the IRS failed to properly preserve agency records despite a subpoena and an internal preservation order. Shortly after being sworn into office, Mr. Koskinen was issued a subpoena. This created a legal obligation to preserve materials relevant to the Congressional investigation. However, just one month later, with an awareness that a gap existed in Lois Lerner’s email production, the IRS destroyed back-up tapes. These tapes may have contained the missing emails from the time frame in which she admitted the agency was targeting conservative 501(c)(4) groups.”
“Not only did this destruction of 24,000 potential emails occur after the materials were under subpoena, but also after the agency’s own Chief Technology Officer (CTO) issued a preservation notice ordering employees not to destroy anything,” stated Koskinen. “The CTO later stated he was ‘blown away’ that back-up tapes were destroyed ten months after his preservation notice. Further, The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s (TIGTA) June 30, 2015 investigative report confirmed the IRS destroyed documents and misled Congress about the agency’s efforts in complying with congressional subpoenas.”